1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method and, in particular, to a technique suitable to modify an image to the one matched with situations in a remote communication based on images of daily behaviors which are selectively stored with results of image recognition as a reference.
Communication media referred to as “television telephone” has been practically used in which users can talk with each other while transmitting images captured by cameras in their respective remote situations. Since the users can talk with each other over the television telephone as if they talked face-to-face unlike a general telephone, the television telephone is used for a remote conversation with their families and friends who live in remote areas.
One feature of the television telephone that “the users can talk with each other as if they talked face-to-face” means that “the images of the users taken by cameras are always transmitted therebetween while talking.” Some users may feel awkward to use the television telephone. Many users do not want to be photographed by the camera when they do not get dressed, for example, when they just woke up or after a bath.
In this respect, various methods have been discussed in which images that one user does not mind to show the other user are captured and stored in advance and an image suitable for the situation of conversation (user's facial expression or presence or absence of person around the user) is selected from among the those images and transmitted to the other user. The methods are discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-151231, No. 2008-270912, No. 2008-271609, and No. 2009-246566, for example. According to these methods, if images that one user does not mind to show the other user are prepared in advance, the user can talk to a person in a remote location comfortably (or nearly comfortably) as if they talked face-to-face.
However, merely preparing previously “images that one user does not mind to show the other user” does not necessarily ensure that images suitable for the situation of remote conversation are included the stored images. In other words, it cannot be denied that a facial expression or a posture which is not stored in advance may appear in the remote conversation. In addition, a “person” varies in appearance with time (hair grows or whatever, for example), so that the stored images do not include images which are suitable for user's “current” situations after the elapse of a certain period of time from the recording of the stored images.
Thus, it may happen that images suitable for the situation in talking cannot be transmitted. In order to avoid such situations, a large number of “images that one user does not mind to show the other user” has only to be prepared and continuously updated, however, no matter how many images are prepared, situations which are not included in the stored images can arise. Further, it takes too much time and effort to continue updating a large number of images, so that it is not practical.